Shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing 2026

Around the world, birds have been struggling to survive. But the tide is turning. This is a story about optimism.

'A joyful, life-affirming celebration of recovery. We need to hear about these miracles. We need to know we can do it, if we try!' - Isabella Tree, bestselling author of Wilding

'A welcome relief . . . good news stories that rise above the encircling doom' - Literary Review

'Fascinating . . . a reminder of what is being done to save the world's birds - and by doing so, save us' - Stephen Moss, naturalist and bestselling author of Ten Birds That Changed the World

Across the world, scientists, conservationists and ordinary people are involved in groundbreaking work to restore billions of lost birds. Together they're tackling the hollowing out of the springtime dawn chorus and the withering away of once-great migration multitudes.

From a tiny island off the coast of Maine to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and from a hereditary estate in England to a watery wilderness in Romania where Ukrainian air-raid sirens scream at night, birds' fortunes are being reversed.

In The Return of the Oystercatcher, renowned natural history writer and New York Times bestselling author Scott Weidensaul tells the uplifting story of that success and what it means for us and for our planet, too. Because a world that works for birds, in all their complexity of movement and ecological need, will work for everything else. Including people.

Illustrated with 16 pages of colour photographs and maps